** Packages that know how to use Fedora, and therefore RHEL, system libraries and common functions are friendlier to customers, easier for ISVs to maintain, and come with a compelling value proposition similar to Red Hat's.

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* Invite your customers to participate or contribute directly on the next versions of your product. This is one of the biggest open source values for customers who take advantage of it.

Why should ISVs care?

Fedora has one of the strongest and most sustainable communities of any Linux distribution.

Fedora is the upstream for RHEL. You gain six to eighteen months testing that is before the next RHEL Alpha.

Packaging requires the use of system resources instead of supporting your own copy of these resources.

The community (and Red Hat in RHEL) support and maintain those system services, so you can redirect engineering resources to work on tasks core to your software.

Security and bug fixes are handled.

Imagine sending prospective customers, analysts, and journalists a USB key with your spin of Fedora + YourReallyCoolApp ... all ready to go, boot to a live instance, and run the real stuff.

There is a repository called EPEL that are Fedora packages rebuilt for RHEL versions. This is a great way to distribute and maintain software designed to run on RHEL.

When you package the Fedora way, you trade short-term pain (3 to 6 months) for extremely long-term gain (7 years.)

Packages that know how to use Fedora, and therefore RHEL, system libraries and common functions are friendlier to customers, easier for ISVs to maintain, and come with a compelling value proposition similar to Red Hat's.

Invite your customers to participate or contribute directly on the next versions of your product. This is one of the biggest open source values for customers who take advantage of it.